Is too much protein bad?

[jme0106]

Just read an article on medicinetNet.com saying that consuming too much protein can damage your health? It says that it could dehydrate the body and cause stress to the heart and strain the kidneys. Is this really true? I had been weight training 5 days a week for 3 months now, I also changed my diet and been consuming about 150-200 grams of protein everyday. Not sure if this is too much though? I'm just 5'0 ft and weigh 97 LBS.

I also read just recently that too much protein in your diet can cause you to urinate too much which causes the body to lose water weight than fat. I've been literally experiencing going back and forth to the bathroom every hour just to pee, but never thought about it as a problem of having too much protein.

Can anyone tell me more about this? Thanks.

[tasnana]

Check out the sticky on calculating MACROS. It suggest that if your strength training to calculate 1.2% - 1.6% of body weight. So you should be between 116g to 155g. I did'nt realize about the bladder issue lol I have incontinence already as it is.. Good information..

[kettlebelle89]

Too much of anything can be a bad thing and because the protein we consume goes through the kidneys, too much CAN cause damage to the kidneys. The frequent urinating could be a result of your kidneys trying to flush the excess protein from your body?

Your macros aren't too ridiculously high so I think if you keep your protein around the 150g mark you'll be fine and even your high days won't be detrimental. Chronic excessive protein (say, consuming over 200g everyday for someone your size) is probably what the article was referring to.

[Human Rocket]

Are you drinking/taking anything else that might have a diuretic effect? How much water do you drink each day?

[kait123]

I'd just aim for your macro amount. 1 to 1.5g per lb of body is what I usually aim for. I'm around 120lbs and I typically don't eat much over 150-160g.
Anything over that just get's used as waste I believe. Makes me a tad "gassy" if I consume too much.

[BarbieVoight]

If you are really 5'0" 98lbs you don't need 200g protein, just 1-1.5g per pound. On the other hand, my doctor says that as long as I drink lots of water, my kidneys will be ok. I eat pretty much protein and I have very good kidneys and liver

[DaniGrrl]

I'm 5'1" and I aim for between 100g and 150g, and I usually end up at the end of the day around 150. I weigh 102. I think going up to 200g is a little too high and I don't think I'd go over 150 if I were you at your stats.

That being said, I don't know if there's such a thing as getting too much it causes kidney problems. I haven't heard that, but hopefully someone will chime in with something to confirm for sure.

[LoveUrLife]

Just like ladies said it before, eat from 1 to 1.5 g per pound. Protein you eat in addition will be excluded from you body. You'll only be bloated and gassy... Your kidneys can't be demaged. It's a myth. Read the following lines Sorry, bit I can't put in a link yet.



MYTH #5: High-Protein Diets Cause Damage to the Kidneys

You will often hear from ill-informed sources that a high-protein diet damages the kidneys. Not so. Consider the following: everyone knows about step classes and aerobics. They are great calorie burners, get the blood and oxygen flowing, are good conditioners of the cardiovascular system, and, with certain variations, can even be good for muscle toning. So they’re a good thing, right?

Yes.

Except if you have a broken leg.

If you have a broken leg, or a sprained ankle, or shin splints, I’m going to suggest that you not take a step class until the injury heals. Under these special circumstances, the very weight-bearing that does so much good for the normal person is going to be more stress than you need during the healing phase. I’m going to tell you to stay off the leg, let it heal, and avoid putting additional stress on it at this time.

Does the fact that step class is not good for a person with a broken leg mean that the step class led to the broken leg?

No. And ketogenic diets do not—I repeat, do not—cause kidney disease. If your doctor says they do, politely ask him or her to show you the studies. (They don’t exist.) Ketogenic diets are, however, not a good thing if you have an existing kidney disease, much the way a step class is not a good thing if your leg is already broken.

High Protein Causes Kidney Disease? Not.

The oft-repeated medical legend that high-protein diets cause kidney disease came from reversing a medical fact. The medical fact is that reducing protein (up to a point) lessens the decline of renal (kidney) function in people who already have kidney disease. Because restricting protein seems to be a good strategy for those with existing kidney failure (or even some kidney weakness), some people drew the illogical conclusion that the obverse must also be true—that large amounts of protein lead to kidney failure.

In any case, it is not proteins per se that cause problems, even for those who already have renal disease: it is the glycolated proteins (see chapter 2). These sugar-sticky proteins, you may remember, are the result of excess sugar in the blood bumping into protein molecules. These sugar-coated proteins are called AGES, advanced glycolated end-products. The AGES themselves then stick together, forming even bigger collections of molecules, which are too large to pass through the filtering mechanisms of the glomerulus, the network of blood capillaries in the kidneys that acts as a filter for waste products from the blood. This reduces GFR (glomerular filtration rate), a measure of kidney function.

High protein intake does not cause this to happen in normally functioning kidneys. A recent study of 1,624 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study concluded that “high protein intake was not associated with renal function decline in women with normal renal function.”17 Another study in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases showed that protein intake had no effect on GFR in healthy male subjects.18 And a third study in the International Journal of Obesity compared a high-protein with a low-protein weight-loss diet and concluded that healthy kidneys adapted to protein intake and that the high-protein diet caused no adverse effects.19

If you don’t currently have kidney disease, a low-carbohydrate diet is actually an ideal way to help control the blood-sugar levels that can eventually lead to kidney disease. Of course, just to be safe, you should check with your doctor to make sure you don’t have any undiagnosed kidney impairment; but if you don’t, you’re sure not going to develop it from being on a low-carb diet.

BOTTOM LINE
Higher protein intakes do not cause any damage whatsoever to healthy kidneys.